A box containing nearly two dozen Modern Covid-19 vaccines was found on the street in a mountain town in rural Puerto Rico, officials said on Wednesday.
The reports came to light after a resident of the town of Morovis handed a box containing syringes and vials of vaccines to Morovis Municipal Police officers. The person claimed to have found the box on a street in the Barahona neighborhood of Morovis.
Morovis Mayor Carmen Maldonado said she spoke with Puerto Rico’s Deputy Health Secretary, Dr. Iris Cardona, “so that the case can be investigated immediately. Thanks to citizen Morovis who responsibly called the Municipal Police and filed the complaint corresponding” Maldonado tweeted in Spanish.
During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Health, Carlos Mellado, confirmed that the agency is investigating the case and interviewing the person who found the box.
“We are talking about 31 vaccines that, unfortunately, have been lost. I am very upset and, above all, outraged, ”said Mellado in Spanish. “We have to investigate, until the last consequences, because there is an urgent interest of the Puerto Rican people in knowing what happened.”
In a statement on Wednesday night, Mellado said he received an update on the ongoing investigation. The vaccines were delivered to a Walgreens pharmacy, under federal contract, for residents of a long-term care facility.
Mellado said he gave investigators 24 hours to report on their findings in order to “judge the responsibility and refer the case to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Department of Justice or any other agency with jurisdiction.”
“Managing vaccines during an emergency requires that all providers act in the most responsible manner possible,” said Mellado in Spanish.
On the island of 3.2 million people, the virus infected at least 91,834 people and killed 2,007.
Puerto Rico has received almost 630,000 doses of Covid-19 so far. Of these, at least 598,000 have already been distributed across the island and more than 418,000 have already been managed, officials said at the news conference.
Sixty-eight percent of those who were vaccinated received only the first dose of the vaccine, while 32 percent have already received the second dose.
Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.